Google: Android Has 900 Million Activations, 48 Billion App Downloads

At the Google I/O event the search giant has shared the latest numbers concerning the adoption of the Android operating system. While it is not surprising that the platform is now considerably ahead Apple iOS, it looks like it trails when it comes to total software purchases as well as in terms of average revenue per user (ARPU).

According to Google, 900 million Android-based devices have been activated worldwide since 2008. The progress of Google’s mobile platform is very rapid: 100 million activations were reached in 2011, whereas 400 million activations were achieved in 2012. Over 48 billion applications have been installed onto Android-powered Gadgets since emergence less than five years ago. The vast majority of products that use Android operating system are smartphones, but tablets are also prospering these days and more devices like TVs or set-top-boxes are emerging.

Google claims that in many countries its market share is less than 10%, which gives a lot of growth opportunities. Moreover, there are seven billion of people worldwide, which means that Android will continue to grow in the foreseeable future.

While Google Android clearly left behind Apple iOS in terms of installation base (life-to-date sales of Apple iOS devices should be north from 600 million units these days), its 900 million devices sold 48 billion of apps, whereas Apple’s App Store supplied over 50 billion of apps to 600+ million devices. Given that many of Android programs are free, whereas apps for iOS tend to cost at least $0.99, the ARPU of Apple’s devices seems to be higher compared to Android-based products.

Several months down the road, Google Android is expected to be found on over 1 billion of devices.